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Mississippi, like all other U.S. states, is required under the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA) to provide high-quality alternate assessments for students with significant cognitive disabilities (SCD). These alternate assessments, just like the general assessments, must be aligned to academic content standards that apply to all students in Reading, Writing, and Mathematics in grades 3–8 and once in high school and in Science in at least one grade in each of the 3–5, 6–8, and high school grade ranges Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015.

However, for students with significant cognitive disabilities, the general assessments, even when administered with accommodations, do not provide these students with the opportunity to demonstrate what they know and can do. Therefore, alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS) are designed to measure the knowledge and skills of students with significant cognitive disabilities. Student performance explicated by the alternate achievement standards should show how eligible students demonstrate performance in relation to the academic content standards.

State testing for students with significant cognitive disorders will be changing for the 2016-17 school year. Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) will be replaced by the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program-Alternate (MAAP-A). Similar to MAP, MAAP-A will be developed by Questar Assessment, Inc. and Mississippi educators. DLM Essential Elements will still be used as the standards for English Language Arts and Math. Mississippi Extended Science Frameworks will be used for the science alternate assessments.